Picnic style food with Mrs. Wilkes' recipes served on a rainy day!

I have been MIA for a week now.  Even though I have cooked I haven't sat down and wrote about it until now.  Last time I wrote was last Sunday and I was logging off to go work in the kitchen.  I had accomplished a lot in that day and will start of this blog entry from there.

As I wrote earlier, I was having friends over for dinner that night.  Ron and Kathy agreed to be taste testers for my project and also play some Euchre with us afterwards.  Dinner was set up to be at 6 p.m. and I had a lot planned for the menu:

Here's what I had planned on making for that dinner:

Barbecue Pork
Barbecue Sauce
Barbecue Ribs
Cole Slaw
Bean Salad
Baked Beans
Deviled Eggs
Pecan Pie

The very first thing I had to work on was getting the pork into the crockpot to cook.  This is my second pork roast.  We loved it so much, we had to have it again.  Next on my list to complete was the barbecue sauce.  Again, I have made it before and made two batches for the barbecue pork and also the ribs.  Not sure that 6 cups in the original recipe would be enough.  Turned out that it would have been enough....sigh....

Next was working on the Deviled Eggs.  My second attempt at boiling eggs and I decided to take Brenda's suggestion and boil my eggs with her directions.  I am sad to report that my eggs once again didn't turn out.  Tom had to go out to the store and buy more eggs.  He then became the man in charge and stated he will get the eggs cooked.  He came back from the store with medium eggs that were on sale.  I used Eggland Best extra large eggs and he came back with medium krogers eggs.

He said his secret is to add salt and vinegar to the water and then he boiled them pretty hard and then let them sit on the stove with a lid.  I have no idea how long he let them go, but it was a while, he didn't time them.  Once he thought they were done, they peeled really easy.  He peeled them for me and even peeled my Eggland eggs and was eating them as a consolation prize.  He believed that the Eggland eggs were perhaps too fresh or I just don't let them boil long enough to get them properly cooked.  But he did save the day and get them done and I did made the yolk mixture to pipe into the eggs.

Lets talk about what Mrs. Wilkes' likes in her yolk mixutre.  Her recipe calls for mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, pimentoes and french dressing.  Tom sampled an egg and said they were really good, but perhaps he would add a little more mayo to it the next time.  I also got out my Pampered Chef decorator to pipe the filling into the eggs.  We put them in a tray and into the refrigerator to chill.

Next was the Pecan Pie.  Not my first one, but instead of Mrs. Wilkes recipe, I used the recipe on the Karo bottle.  The pie came out a little overcooked and some of the filling came out of the pan.  Not as good as I remember making them in the past.  Once it was out of the oven, I let it cook on a rack.

Bean Salad was next on my list to do.  This is a cold bean salad that called for french cut green beans, tiny English peas, celery, onion, green pepper, pimentoes in an oil-vinegar mixture.  It was really easy to assemble and I got it together and put it also in the refrigerator to chill. 

Tom was still in the kitchen helping me out and I asked him if he would grate the cabbage for the Cole Slaw.  He got out my Pampered Chef Ultimate Slice-n-Grate and grated up 4 cups of the cabbage for the recipe.  I have never made Cole Slaw before.  I am not usually a fan of it.  I am not a fan of mayonnaise recipes but if someone makes it, I'll have a small serving to sample it.  Tom on the other had likes Cole Slaw and he was anxious to see how Mrs. Wilkes' would turn out.

Once he had the cabbage grated, I added grated carrot, pickle relish, sugar and mayonnaise and put it in a serving dish, into the refrigerator to chill.  It was easy to do!

One of my last recipes to assemble was Baked Beans.  This was another easy recipe to put together.  But I managed to mess it up.  Recipe called for 1/4 cups of catsup and 1/4 tsp. of mustard.  I mis-read the recipe and added 1/4 cup of mustard to the ingredients instead of 1/4 tsp.  I knew I had a problem when the color of the beans were more yellow than anything! LOL...So Tom was going back to the store to get me more beans since I ruined my first attempt.  He's been really good helping me out and bailing me out! Once he was back, I put the recipe together again to get it ready to go into the oven.

The last thing I assembled was the Barbecue Pork Ribs.  I was making these ahead of time, since i was going to served the shredded barbecue pork for dinner.  This was also my first attempt at cooking ribs in the oven.  I pre-cooked them for 30 minutes and then drained off the fat and then covered them in barbecue sauce and put them back into the oven until they were done.

Kathy and Ron were right on time for dinner.  I was busy getting everything out onto the table when they walked in.  I asked Ron if he brought his appetite with him and he said yes!  I said good as there was a lot of food to eat!  Here's photos of the dishes, and the table before we dug in:

I hope you weren't hungry when you looked at those photos!  I should have given a disclaimer before I put them up!

Time to finally dig in!  Most of the dishes could be passed around with the exception of the baked beans.  Kathy and Ron were both commenting that they are not usually fans of cold food.  They prefer hot food when they eat.  Most of my dishes were cold so I was a little worried.  Since they volunteered to be taste testers, they put a little of everything on their plates and got busy tasting.  The barbecue pork has a huge hit and Kathy said that having the buns buttered and toasted really made them even better.  I knew Ron was a fan eating a total of 3 sandwiches!  The cole slaw was also a hit by everyone, even myself!  It was really good and I think because it was the pickle relish that gave it that something special.  The bean salad was also liked by Kathy and Ron.  Tom would not touch it due to the raw onion and peppers.  I liked it ok.  I am not much for sweet and vinegar dishes.  But it did look pretty and had a nice crunch to it.

Deviled Eggs were gobbled up and Tom said they were really good and if I ever wanted to make them again, he would help and happily eat them all.  As we were all busy eating dinner, I reminded everyone that we had Pecan Pie (still warm) for dessert.  I also had whipped cream to serve with it.  Kathy asked if we could also have some coffee with dessert and I made up a pot.  The pie was really good, but again the texture was not as good as I remember making in the past. 

Once we got everything put away in the kitchen, it was time for some Euchre.  Kathy and I were partners against Tom and Ron.  The boys spanked us in two rounds.  It didn't help that I was being my usual cocky self in wanting to win and Ron is just as if not more so cocky than me.  So when he and Tom won, it was rubbed in our faces pretty hard.  We had a good time visiting with them and some left overs to work on for the next couple of days!

Meatloaf that Tom called "Sloppy Joe Meatloaf" and the Macaroni and Cheese low down...

I haven 't posted since Thursday morning and I did three days worth of posts on that day.  I'll pick up from that last post and get everyone caught up on what has been happening until now.

In my last post, I wrote that I was going to do some research on comparing Mrs. Wilkes' Macaroni and Cheese to other recipes to see the differences, since I think her version had a typo with milk being 3 cups.  I spent 20 minutes looking for a recipe online that was simliar to her version and guess who had it?  Paula Deen.  It has also been recommended to me that I also look to Paula to learn to cook southern food.  But on my visit to Savannah I dined at both ladies restaurants and it was a clear choice that Mrs. Wilkes' had the better food.  So that is why I chose her cookbook and made the commitment.  However, it is also become obvious that these cookbooks I am using have typos or missing instructions.  I am going to make a focused effort to call down to Mrs. Wilkes' and see if I can get some help from them.  If not, then I am going to also compare other recipes to verify that I am using the correct amounts in the recipes.

Back to the recipe comparision.  Here's the recipe for Paula Deen's Macaroni and Cheese:

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked elbow macaroni, drained
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Once you have the macaroni cooked and drained, place in a large bowl and while still hot and add the cheddar. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and add to the macaroni mixture. Pour macaroni mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Top with additional cheese if desired.

In comparison, Mrs. Wilkes' had 2 cups of elbow macaroni, cheese was the same, 4 eggs beaten, no sour cream, 1/2 cup of butter, salt was the same and 3 cups of milk.  Both recipes cooked for the same temperature and time.  I think this shows that the 3 cups of milk was clearly the issue in the dish not being right. So I'm going to say that I solved the issue of Mrs. Wilkes' version not turning out and later, will make Paula's version to settle it once and for all.

Dad and Mom also came over on Thursday to pick up some food.  As I wrote in my last post, my Dad was feeling a little left out that he wasn't able to get any of my cooking.  It makes it difficult when he is an hour and a half away.  But I found out he was coming to town to visit my Mom and his sister and he wanted o stop and see Jacob too.  I told him that I would give him some food to take and sample but he had to give me a report on what he thought of the food.  He agreed.  When he stopped by, he dropped off Aunt Doris's clean containers from my last trip and left with his own goody bag of my food to try. 

Now I am up to Thursday evening where I was planning on doing quite a bit of cooking.  Unfortunately, work kept me so busy that I wasn't done until 6:30 p.m.  I was so tired from the day, I told Tom that we would just have leftovers instead of  me preparing anything.  And that is what we did. 

Friday morning, I am at the office and I get a call from my Dad.  He wanted to give me a review of what he tried.  He told me that the cheese balls were good and that he ate them first.  Next he tried the kraut and frankfurters.  He told me that he had never had noodles mixed in but he loved it because it took out the sourness of the kraut.  He said it was the best he has ever had and when he makes it in the future, he will add noodles.  He still needs to sample the seafood casserole and when he does, I'll let you know what he thought of it.

Once I got home from work, it was time to put some dinner together for Tom and I.  Here's is what I had on the menu:

Meatloaf

Potatoes in Cream Sauce

Cream Sauce

Pecan Pie

I started working on the Meatloaf first.  While I was assembling the ingredients, I asked Tom if he would peel and cut up the potatoes for the Potatoes in Cream Sauce.  I used the 2001 cookbook and it said that "This comfort food can be found on the menu every Wednesday."  The only unusual ingredients I found was the 2 cups of corn flakes crushed and a can of cream of mushroom soup.  It also called for eggs, onion, green pepper, salt, milk and soy sauce.  In the directions it said that the secret is to mix well but lightly.  Do not pack. 

Well I did that and I put the Meatloaf into a loaf pan versus putting it on a platter type baking dish.  It was a mistake to put it in a loaf pan.  It was a huge pain to get out of the pan and I let it rest for 10 minutes.  It wouldn't lift out because it was so moist that it was breaking up.  So I had to dump it out onto my serving tray.  Here's a photo of the Meatloaf in the pan as I feared it I took a photo of it dumped onto the platter, it would not look good.

Tom got the potoatoes peeled and cut and on the stove and they were cooking.  I put out the rest of the ingredients for the Potatoes in Cream Sauce.  It called for 2 tbsp. of butter and flour, 2 cups of milk with 4 cups of potatoes.  I followed the instructions and it did not thicken up.  Again I think there was too much  milk in the recipe.  In comparing other recipes they all called for less milk.  Once I put them into the serving bowl, I added cheddar cheese on top.  Here's the photo:

Finally, I had to make the Pecan Pie and get that into the oven.  I have made plenty of Pecan Pies in my day.  Especially when I had to bake them up for various fund raisers that were done for my former Mom's group, M.O.S.T.  I have always used the recipe on the back of Karo Syrup and it was perfect pie every time.  Mrs. Wilkes recipe was different with less sugar 1/2 cup, more butter 3 tbsp and only a cup of pecans versus 1 1/2 cups on the Karo recipe.  I followed Mrs. Wilkes' and the pie looked good when it came out of the oven:

Now let's get to the taste testing.  Tom and I first tasted the Meatloaf.  I was curious to try it with the corn flakes in it.  It really tasted great!  Tom said it was the best meatloaf he has ever had.  It just was moist and crumbly.  It didn't want to hold its shape.  Tom called it "Sloppy Joe Meatloaf".  When I tasted it, I was surprised at how good it tasted. 

The Potatoes in Cream Sauce didn't thicken up so well.  It tasted OK but I was disappointed in the texture.  Tom liked them too.  We also had a salad and after cleaning up the kitchen we cut into the Pecan Pie and served it with whipped cream.   The pie didn't hold it's shape, but again it tasted good.  But in my humble opinion the Karo Pecan Pie is a better recipe and better tasting pie. 

All the left overs were put away and I checked in with my Aunt Doris and told her that I would be stopping by on Saturday to bring her some more southern cooking fo her to taste test for me.

Saturday was a day of running errands and no cooking was done.  Again we had left overs but we also had dinner at Steak and Shake so Jacob could wait on us.  We also stopped over at Aunt Doris and I took her quite a bit of goodies to share with her and she was feeling better after having Tonsilitis.  At the end of the day Tom and I went to the store to get groceries as we are having Ron and Kathy over for dinner tomorrow.  I'll be working on some additional recipes to serve up with the Barbecue Pork.  I'm excited to continue to have different folks sample the food and give me their opinion.